Your address on the web - Domain Register

Domain Register - read on if you not sure about it. Move on if you know all about it.

I'm going to keep domain name registration information simple.
If you want some serious in-depth information about domain name registration go here:

Serious in-depth information about domain name registration.

More serious in-depth information about registration information.

Now back to basics.
You and your website need to live somewhere on the web. Some address, so that people can find you amongst those millions of web addresses. Your address must also be unique, worldwide.
When someone types in www.your-address.com, then they should only find you. Your webmail should also go to your address, not anywhere else, i.e. your-name@your-address.com.
Your unique web address is known as your URL (Uniform Resource Locator) and you can type it in the URL box at the top of any web browser to find your website on the Web.

You got basically two choices.
Choice 1
You go live with someone else and your web address looks something like this: www.some-one-else.com/your-address/
This is OK for small and mainly private websites, it does not look good for business. Customers may think that you are just camping on someone else's turf and that you may not be trustworthy.

Choice 2
You register your own name and you can pick whatever fits in with your site, is easy to spell and easy to remember, your www.your-address.com or www.your-address.com.au or your-adress.uk or your-address.net.
Your own place in cyber space. Registered to you and nobody else can have it.
As long as you pay your yearly fee to a domain name registrar or a domain name registry operator (watch out for them, some has got some dodgey practises to convince or scare you to go with them).

More information on domain name registrars here.

What is it with this domain register names such as something.org and something.net and something.com?
Dot org is usually for community style organisations, dot net for general web sites and dot com for commercial sites. No hard and fast rules here. There are many more, but lets not get confused about this.
Then you get domain register names like something.com.au or something.co.za. You can have your name registered with the Australian (dot au) or South African (dot co dot za) domain servers, or whichever country you're working from.
Or under the worldwide banner of the USA something.com domains, which the bulk of the web community uses.
Some countries like Australia have some requirements like before you can register your name there, you should have a business registered with that name.

Prices per year can range from US$25/year for a dot com, and about double for a dot com dot au.

So you and website needs somewhere to park. SBI! includes domain name registration in their package. With All the Tools, All In One Place, All For ONE Low Price